ROD

Rod

The rod or perch or pole is a surveyors tool and unit of length equal to 5 yards, 16 feet or th of a statute mile and one-fourth of a surveyors chain. The rod is useful as a unit of length because whole number multiples of it can equal one acre of square measure. The 'perfect acre', is a rectangular area of 43,560 square feet, bounded by sides 660 feet by 66 feet long, or 220 yards by 22 yards long, or 40 rods by 4 rods long. Thus, an acre is 160 square rods. Since the adoption of the international yard on 1 July 1959, the rod has been equal to exactly 5.0292 meters.

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Rod (unit)
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

rod

Noun

  1. A straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane, or staff.
    The circus strong man proved his strength by bending an iron rod, and then straightening it.
  2. A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod.
    When I hooked a snake and not a fish, I got so scared I dropped my rod in the water.
  3. A stick, pole, or bundle of switches or twigs (such as a birch), used for personal defense or to administer corporal punishment by whipping.
  4. An implement resembling and/or supplanting a rod (particularly a cane) that is used for corporal punishment, and metonymically called the rod, regardless of its actual shape and composition.
    The judge imposed on the thief a sentence of fifteen strokes with the rod.
  5. A stick used to measure distance, by using its established length or task-specific temporary marks along its length, or by dint of specific graduated marks.
    I notched a rod and used it to measure the length of rope to cut.
  6. A unit of length equal to 1 pole, a perch, ¼ chain, 5½ yards, 16½ feet, or exactly 5.0292 meters (these being all equivalent).
  7. An implement held vertically and viewed through an optical surveying instrument such as a transit, used to measure distance in land surveying and construction layout; an engineer's rod, surveyor's rod, leveling rod, ranging rod. The modern engineer's or surveyor's rod commonly is eight or ten feet long and often designed to extend higher. In former times a surveyor's rod often was a single wooden pole or composed of multiple sectioned and socketed pieces, and besides serving as a sighting target was used to measure distance on the ground horizontally, hence for convenience was of one rod or pole in length, that is, 5½ yards.
  8. A unit of area equal to a square rod, 30¼ square yards or 1/160 acre.
    The house had a small yard of about six rods in size.
  9. A straight bar that unites moving parts of a machine, for holding parts together as a connecting rod or for transferring power as a drive-shaft.
    The engine threw a rod, and then went to pieces before our eyes, springs and coils shooting in all directions.
  10. Short for rod cell, a rod-shaped cell in the eye that is sensitive to light.
    The rods are more sensitive than the cones, but do not discern color.
  11. Any of a number of long, slender microorganisms.
    He applied a gram positive stain, looking for rods indicative of Listeria.
  12. A stirring rod: a glass rod, typically about 6 inches to 1 foot long and 1/8 to 1/4 inch in diameter that can be used to stir liquids in flasks or beakers.
  13. A pistol; a gun.
  14. A penis.
  15. A hot rod, an automobile or other passenger motor vehicle modified to run faster and often with exterior cosmetic alterations, especially one based originally on a pre-1940s model or (currently) denoting any older vehicle thus modified.
  16. rod-shaped objects which appear in photographs and videos traveling at high speed, not seen by the person recording the event, often associated with extraterrestrial entities
  17. a


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: rod
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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